I Local Oection Results In the Democratic Party pri mary election on Tuesday for governor, Rufus Edmisten de feated former Charlotte mayor Eddie Knox. Edmisten captured 352,108 votes, or 52 percent, to Knox’s 328,442 votes, or 48 per cent. Edmisten will challenge the formidable Republican Jim Mar tin, the veteran 9th District Congressional Seat holder for the governorship in November. In other races of particular interest, D.G. Martin won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House 9th Congressional ' District seat by defeating the equally talented Susan Green, a former Mecklenburg County Commissioner. Martin received 38;395 votes or 56 percent of the area. 9th' District. Martin will faZSTRepublican Alex McMillan iiwNbvember. Phil Berry, an incumbent sm House member and for mer^ Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board Chairman, de feated Huey M. Rowe-Anderson iitZJJhe race for ^the State Senate seat of the 33rd Dis trict. Recent news ^reports al leging that Berry-has had questionable business deal ings with undesirables and that his finanj^s were in disarray, apparently had little effect on his support. Berry received 64 per cent of the 14,525 votes cast. He has in effect won a State Se nate seat because their is no Republican opponent. Rowe-An derson, a chemistry professor at Johnson C. Smith University and a successful real estate broker, was seeking his first political office and had developed and run a good political campaign. The , 33rd District was . a new district created when the Courts ruled that black vote-power was diluted when placed in larger white voting districts. Probably the most significant thing to note about these pri mary election races is that when the dust has settled it can honestly be said that the voters were _ the , big winners. Each candidate pairing — Edmisten Knox, Martin-Green, and Berry Rowe-Anderson were of such equal talent, knowledgeable and dedicated to public service that the voters would be fortunate to .have any one of them as a public servant. It is also a credit to the Democratic Party that it can field-such a high caliber-of~ candidates. This is good for the Party and certainly good for the voters. Anyone familiar with the Charlotte scene should be aware of She impact that urban re* ne\6af has had on many parts of the City, particularly uptown, adBfStore specifically upon up town’s black communities. Cen tral to all this renewal, and sadly overlooked, has been the de stroying of much of the city’s history, and again, its black history. Fortunately, we now have an opportunity as individuals, fam ilies, social organizations and businesses to restore and pre serve much of Charlotte’s black past. This opportunity arises from the efforts'being made to restore, preserve and give a new vitality to the former Little Rock AME Zion Church building in historic First Ward. On May 1, 1984, the Afro American Cultural Center fund drive began to further the re storation of the historic old building. In the first phase of the restoration, the City of Char lotte provided $502,000 for struc tural repairs and safety. The seoond phase includes further extensive reconstruction. This will include an attic theater to seat over 200 people, an amphi theatre to seat over 300, an exhibit hall and offices for the Center’s staff. The second phase restoration fund drive began with a goal of $800,000 to be raised by June 30, 1984. A number of black church es, sororities and fraternities began the effort with pre pledges of $103,000. As of June 5, the fund drive had collected in donations and pledges $203,000 or 25 percent of their god.' Black businesses and the black com munity at-large have been asked to give $300,000 of the needed funds. One dime, Ofte^oIIara'mrup, as the Afro-American Cultural Center director Vivian Nivens has commented, “no gift is too small.” Thus, this is a golden opportunity to help preserve a part of our heritage, our past and our city’s history. Qon’t wait,' make your pledge or'give your contribution today. In ~plain English, the-Afro American Cultural Center needs your support so that it can support you and yoyr history, your roots, and Che foun dation for your future. THEBEST DEB., -t AGAINST RATS IS A GARBAGE CAN WITH THE UD OH TIGHT June Is Unique Month Memorial Day, 1M4, ushers In and sets the stage for a rather unique month. Not that this June is, of itself, going to be that dif ferent. It will still be 30 days long, temperatures will warm up, and “the possibility of scattered afternoon and evening thundershowers” will creep into' most daily weather forecasts. Its uniqueness will instead come from the focus of attention on our nation’s vetergns. Two national proclamations will be issued: a Presidential Pro clamation will cfcaignate the month of June, 1984 Jgiv’ the 40th Anniversary of the federal Veterans’ Pref erence Act, and Secretary of Labor Raymond J. Donovan will proclaim June as “Hire A Vet Month.” Many people passed Memorial Day without any thought for the thousand upon thousands of men and women, soldiers, sailors, and airmen who have “given their last full measure of devotion.” More .will enjoy a June Untroubled by concerns for the significance of Hire A Vet Month or for the reason for commemorating the Veterans’ Preference Act. These will be good people, family people, people who have been touched by war and the losses that war brings. They are the same people who enjoy life’s freedoms in this place because somebody’s “tic ket” was “punched” on Omaha Beach in 1944, and because a young man died on a rice paddy dike in 1968 in order to tell the world, “We will resist.” They’re all at rest now. It doesn’t really seem so long ago, but then again, it almost seems like a life time ago. After all, Viet nam ended for us, most of us, eleven years ago. And Beirut and Granada - well, But, back to June. Why try to focus this attention on veterans now? Simply because it’s needed. Think back over the past fifteen years and think about the ups and downs of the economy. The average age of the American combatant in Vietnam was just over nineteen years of age. So you come home from war with a high school diploma and the skills of a rifleman. Not stability there. Or you come home, enter college and hit the job market with you degree. But your high school buddy, who missed the draft already has four years of. ■ seniority, and although you got a job, when the economy- went sour in 74, they had to let you go. How do you get seniority when you keep getting laid off? Last in - first out, or easy come - easy go. . At least you're not by yourself. There are a sizeable number of guys and a sprinkling of females too, down at the employ ment office waiting to see the veterans rep. Most are about you age, but one of them you got to talking with was a Korean vet. I heard it was cold in Korea! Come to think of it, we really haven’t had any real long stable periods in thev economy since the mid ’50b. He’s been doing this every few years for 30 years? Almost 700 thousand of North Carolina’s men and women were afforded an opportunity to be among those remembered this Memorial Day. Fortunately, over 620 thousand are still among us today, to help in remem bering those who aren’t. With so many veterans among us, is it any wonder that h -few; -relatively “ speaking, have not gained the stability that should be theirs in the labor force? And for most of these, it has been through no fault of their own. THE CHARLOTTE POST m 11 i... i. ——I.. « — “THE PEOPLE’S NEWSPAPER’’ Established 1918 . Published Every Thursday by The Charlotte Post Publishing Co.. Inc. Subscription Rate $17.68 Per Year Second Class Postage No. 965500 Postmaster Send 3579s to: -_ 1531 Camden Rd., Charlotte. N.C. 28203 Telephone: 704-376-0496 Circulation: 11,023 106 Years of Continuous Service Bill Johnson Editor, Publisher Bernard Reeves General Manager Fran Farrar Advertising Director Dannette Gaither Office Manager Second Class Postage No. *65500 Paid At Charlotte. North Carolina Under the Act of March 3,1878 Member, National Newspaper Publishers’ Association North Carolina Black Publishers Association Deadline for all news copy and photos Is 9 pm., Monday. All photos and copy submitted become the property of The Post ... and will not be returned. ~ National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc. 1 - - ■ - --- - - - ■ S400 8. Michigan Are. 4S W. 45th St.. I4S3 » Chicago. III. SSStS New York, New York I MSS Cot*met 5-0200 212-400-1220 W* * ,1 From Capitol Hill Persistence Begins To Pay Off! Alfreds L. Madison Special To The Post Representative Parren Mitchell, approxi mately, a decade ago brought to congressional attention the plight of minority business which was completely ignored in the awarding of govern ment contracts. At the beginning of Mitchell’s proposal, little or no Interest was generat ed for it in Congress. Yet, the hard-hitting, non-deter rent Mitchell continued his Tight until he got a bill passed providing a 10 per cent set-aside of govern ment contracts for minor ity businesses. As late as 1077, minor ity businesses’ share of federal procurement was less than one percent of the nearly $100 billion procure ment budget. Even now minority business’ share la roughly 3.1 perceot, Reasons given by op ponents of minority busi ness contracts stated that no qualified minority busi nesses could be found for procurement contracts. Through Mitchell’s per sistence. the Small Busi ness Administration f(a) was required to help de velop a pew cadre of minority bus in ess ee. Mitchell stated that some barriers are slowly being removed which prohibit minority entrepreneurs equal participation in the free enterprise system. Alfred* L. Madia— Inadequate capital is an intervening factor. Mit chell suggests two reme dies. The Minority Invest ment Tax Act of IBM pro posed by Representative Mitchell and Rangel will boost capital assets for disadvantaged minority owned businesses victim ised by economic discrim b"» Another barrier can be removed if the managers of the nation's trillion dollar pension system will invest in minority business. Mit chell emphasised that as important as these two measures are, they do not supersede private corpora tions’ voluntary partner ship with small business. Mitchell was highly jubi lant and elated at a press conference over the light at the beginning of the tunnel of the fruits of his labor. He announced that the Martin Marietta Company had made an agreement with Maxima, a minority bu siness. Small Business Ad ministration assisted in the equity agreement. Representative Mitchell, Michael Barnes and Gil christ, Chief Montgomery County Executive, were highly elated because both Maxima and Martin Ma rietta’s headquarters are located in Montgomery County, MD. Martin Marietta has di versification in aerospace, data systems, aluminum basic products and energy systems Maxima, black owned, is a Ugh techno-, logy information firm, spe cializing in system ana lysis and engineering and information resources, i v In the equity, agreement between Martin Marietta and Maxima, Martin Ma rietta purchased IS per cent of the stock in Maxi ma, with two persons on « nine-member board,! xima will use the capi tal for growth and expan sion. Both companies have interest in the Oak Ridge, TN, project. Marietta’s Energy System. Inc., has bean chosen to operate the Department of Energy (DOE) facilities there. Martin Marietta has pro tected Itself from any con-, diet of interest with DOE by requesting that its au thority be applied to all procurement decisions on which Maxima bids. Joshua Smith, president of Maxima Corporation, said, “Maxima Corpora tion concludes 1983 with a variety of new contracts which contribute to a 16 fold increase in growth since the company was formed five years ago." The new contracts in clude a 17.5 million Navy contract with the Energy Department. Maxima has continued to make pro Car with a revenue of ,000 in 1979 to 16 mill ion in 1983. Mr. Smith predicts that revenues in 1984 will total $16 million The 814.5 million naval sur face weapons contract is the largest ever granted under the Small Business Administration. . Maxima aaft has a five year Navy civilian person nel record contract with the Oak Ridge project. This contract consists of pooling information on cosl, nu clear electric and alter nate fuels. The company pinpoints reference mate rial for journalists Mr. Jarmolow, President of Martin Marietta, stated ' that when they made the decision with Maxima, they did not know it was a minority corporation. Nei ther did they care. Their only concern was the cor poration’s qualifications. '""rsas Sabrina Can It Govern Itself? Affirmative Action! Recently the U. S. Labo&^*tm<&J0tf<. found itself facing strong .opposition.from minority organizations, women’s groups, and their Democratic allies in/Congress over the Affirmative Action Program that allows companife'ftx monitor .their own employment records. . '3 > The experimental program, caOSfed the $ National Self-Monitoring Reporting System (NSMRS), exempts some companies from random labor checks for periods as long as five years. Under normal circumstances, the Labor Department would monitor dis crimination in hiring and promotions and would conduct spot checks of corporate affirmative action plans. The old system cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of dollars per company, the experimental program would cut, substantially, the costs and manpower needed. Under the NSMRS Program, a company agrees to provide the Labor Department with one annugTTPfeport that reflects'" the trend in minority and women’s employ ment in management and non-manage ment positions and a second report that compares those numbers with the numbers of those qualified minorities and women available within the nation’s work force. Also under NSMRS a company must explain why its statistics for the two groups have increased or decreased within the year reported. On the flip side of all the wonderful plans of NSMRS many groups complain that its guidelines and regulations are too broad to make any great impact on affirmative action programs. Women’s groups com plain that NSMRS is too general and that a company can hide inequalities easily. With such a program specifics are difficult to devise but should be, according to women representing the Labor Department. Critics of the Babor Department are trying to persuade the (Department into discontinuing the program. Labor Secre tary Raymond J. Donovan has been asked to put the program on the back burner until it’s established whether the Reagan Admin istration is fair to women and minorities. The NSMRS Program was created at the suggestion of AT&T. In 1973 AT&T signed a consent document with the Federal govern ment, agreeing to pay $50 million to victims of past discrimination. And to update its hiring and promotional policies. At the close of the 10-year government supervision, AT&T started considering ways as to how to develops standard affirmative action for it to follow. This idea created new non government positions and ensures fair representation of women and minorities in all management and non-management po sitions. As a result of that, NSMRS Program spin-offs will continue until March, 1986; however, any individual company’s pro gram can be cancelled by the Labor Department or the company itself. The major program point of such a program is that a company or organization can camouflage its records. The frame work given by the Labor Department looks good on paper, but in reality can be manipulated to show women and minority members and employees that do not exist. The numbers can reflect a 25 percent increase in participation of the groups in question within a five-year period under this program; since the Department only phy sically reviews the companies within five year time spans. American Telephone & Telegraph, IBM, General Motors and Hewlett-Packard all attempted the program oq two-year trial basis, but women’s organizations, civil rights groups and congressional allies stepped in to investigate and found maay violations within the program’s framework. Until the day comes that NSMRS has specific and rigid guidelines, the Labor Department must continue its strict mom? toring of each company and its employment practices. American businesses have proved not to be ready to monitor their own practices totally independent of the Labor Department. '• National self-monitoring reporting sys tem is a good idea - a good idea with too many loopholes and grey areas. Employees of any company, large or small, may want to consider developing committees to re present them to take part in the program and to insure the company’s employment and promotion policies are up to par- and if not, work to get them there t